Sam Dealey is a journalist who contributed political reporting and analysis to The Weekly Standard from 1999 to 2002. His work for the magazine covered congressional politics, foreign affairs, and political profiles, with pieces on topics ranging from Senate GOP strategy to the situation in Afghanistan. He has also written for other publications including U.S. News & World Report and the Dallas Morning News.
"IT'S UNFORTUNATELY TRUE," Al Gore told the Washington Post last month, "that the painful experiences in life give you more of a chance for growth than the others." In the former vice president's list of painful experiences, the 1996 Clinton-Gore fundraising scandals must rank pretty high. Although…
HERE'S A GOOD ONE: Liberals are now whining about media bias. It took the form of an April 12 letter to the heads of CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. "We are writing to bring to your attention an issue that has become more pronounced in recent months: the lack of television coverage of press events…
EVEN AMONG THE HOMELESS, it seems, there's a pecking order for park benches. Why dodge bullets in gang-torn Compton when you can shoot the breeze with Bill and Hill in Chappaqua? Indeed, Westchester County, New York, has a more severe problem with homelessness than anywhere else in the country.…
WHEN SHEILA JACKSON LEE first came to Washington in January 1995, the Texas Democrat railed against the Capitol's silk-stockinged elite. "The American people want reform, not phony but real reform," she said in her debut House speech. "They want to know that the days of free meals and free trips…
AFGHAN LEADERS vying for control of their country have been dragooned into working with the United Nations in an effort to craft a transitional government. The comparison being drawn most often--by a host of American and British officials, and by U.N. secretary generalKofi Annan--is to the U.N.…
IN THE DAYS following the terrorist attack on New York and Washington last week, an employee of a major U.S. airline read to Florida congressman John Mica the procedures his carrier instructs its pilots to adopt in the event of a hijacking. The chairman of the House aviation subcommittee calls them…
IT HAS NOT BEEN A HAPPY YEAR for Senate Republicans. First there was the disappointing showing in last fall’s elections, when they almost lost their majority; then came the defection of Jim Jeffords, when they did lose it. Now, the announced retirement of Jesse Helms and speculation that other old…
GEORGETOWN DOYENNE SALLY QUINN is Washington. Which is why when Mrs. Benjamin Bradlee deigned to advise a beleaguered congressman a week ago Sunday in the Washington Post, everyone listened. "Gary, Gary, Gary," she admonished Rep. Condit. "Most people don’t care whether you or any other congressman…
WHEN HOUSE EDUCATION and Workforce chairman John Boehner unveiled the president's retooled education bill two weeks ago, conservatives howled. Key provisions candidate Bush had stumped for and which Republicans were led to believe formed the backbone of his reform proposal -- school vouchers, for…
AS HIS REPUBLICAN COLLEAGUES WERE polishing off lunch at their weekly policy meeting last Tuesday, Vermont senator James Jeffords spoke about the importance of passing the education bill. According to a witness, Jeffords, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chairman, delivered one…
A BULLETIN from the Country Club of Little Rock brings word that one of its new members is former Clinton White House chief of staff Thomas "Mack" McLarty. This might ordinarily pass unnoticed, but McLarty is not precisely a new member, and the Country Club of Little Rock is not your ordinary…
LAST TUESDAY the Legal Services Corporation celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary with a tea party at the White House. "Of course," said the first lady, herself a former LSC chairman, "we've all encountered people who don't believe in legal services for the poor. We still have to fight for every…
NOTHING TURNS REPUBLICANS into awkward, tongue-tied bumblers quite the way the issue of homosexuality does. Take President Clinton's appointment of gay activist and philanthropist James Hormel as ambassador to Luxembourg.